In this episode, Rahul talks to the CEO of Big Sofa Technologies, Kirsty Fuller, about her journey into market research, her various roles in different businesses, doing her Master’s Degree in Economics, and how she segued into creating her own business.

With a background in languages, Kirsty climbed the career ladder to the top, representing women in senior positions in a male-dominated industry.

How has Kirsty’s language background contributed to her success? Hear about the eye-opening experience working at Gillette, the founding of Flamingo Research, the story behind Big Sofa Technologies, the lessons learned along the way, and valuable advice for business leaders, all on this episode of Data Stories: Leaders at Work.

Highlights

• “Cultural context is so important, and you need to be able to harness the expertise and perspectives of people who are living in those cultures, and bring that to bear.”
• “When you learn a language, you don't just learn a language. You also learn a different way of thinking and conceptualising how things are expressed.”
• “As a female in this world, I’m already at a slight disadvantage. You have to work a bit harder. You have to be a bit more intentional about how you present yourself, come to work, and how you talk.”
•  “So much success in a business is about having brought together the right combination of people, and finding a way for them to work together incredibly productively.”
• “The advent of machine learning, artificial intelligence, automated analysis tools, etc, shouldn’t change the skills of the researcher.”
• “Listen more to clients than the competition.“
• “Know what your special thing is - the one thing that’s the most differentiating about your company and what you do.”

About - Kirsty Fuller

Kirsty has over 30 years of experience in the insights industry. She is an experienced business leader and a rare breed of female CEOs of a technology company.

She is the co-founder and former CEO of Flamingo, a multi-award winning insights and strategy agency that has since been acquired by Omnicom. Since 2018, She has been the CEO of Big Sofa Technologies PLC.

Kirsty is also the founding trustee of the charity, Purposeful, which works on behalf of adolescent girls in Sierra Leone. Since its involvement with the ‘With and For Girls’ organisation, Purposeful has expanded further across the globe.

Kirsty’s Influential People

Sue Knowlesworthy

Relevant Links

Website:              https://www.bigsofatech.com

                                  https://wearepurposeful.org

Twitter:                https://twitter.com/fuller_kirsty

LinkedIn:             https://uk.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-fuller-3324716

Review, Rate, and Subscribe to Data Stories: Leaders at Work

Subscribe on all leading podcast platforms.

Data Stories: Leaders at Work is brought to you by Audiense.

https://resources.audiense.com/podcast/data-stories/leaders-at-work